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LinuxChix, a social networking group for women who use Linux and other open source software, was formed in 1999 by Deb Richardson, a Linux user who was frustrated by the attitudes of many other Linux-oriented groups. Since then, the organisation has grown dramatically, and there are currently more than 40 regional LinuxChix chapters around the world. Until February, LinuxChix had chapters in Australia in Melbourne and Sydney. Following discussions at the Linux.Conf.Au conference in Sydney in January, members realised that a national group would better serve the country. Last month the groups united to form AussieChix, a new nationwide chapter that makes the group more accommodating to women from across Australia, whilst also improving the communications between the members of the previous chapters.

Linux server revenue grew slightly in the fourth quarter of 2006, according to the latest research from IDC. But while overall Linux usage is growing, the number of physical Linux servers being shipped to enterprises may be suffering due to the trend of virtualization.

If you're a FOSS enthusiast who keeps fit by exercising or playing sports, it's time you used an open source application to track your activities. With these programs you can get a good overview of your exercises or create diagrams and statistics for specific time ranges and sport types.

MindTouch has become the first company to be officially certified by VMware as a supplier of virtualised wiki software.

Australia's future economic prosperity will depend on it embracing the principles of community-driven technologies such as Linux and Second Life, according to Glen Boreham.

Red Hat's Fedora Core 6 Linux distribution has reached another big milestone, racking up two million installed users barely two months after tallying 1 million installed users. With the new threshold crossing, it is unclear whether Fedora 6 is the No. 1 Linux distribution in use today, but internetnews.com has learned that preliminary discussions are underway that could see Novell's OpenSUSE Linux distribution partner with Red Hat's Fedora to drive open statistics about Linux use.

Automated Image & Restore (AIR) is an open source application that provides a GUI front end to the dd/dcfldd (Dataset Definition (dd)) command. AIR is designed to easily create forensic disk/partition images. It supports MD5/SHAx hashes, SCSI tape drives, imaging over a TCP/IP network, splitting images, and detailed session logging.

Citizens of modern societies lead highly regulated lives. Whether as individuals we agree or disagree with the degree to which governments control our existence, we nevertheless benefit from a myriad of laws and regulations that seek to ensure our safety and welfare. The range of regulation is breath taking, encompassing the purity of air and water, the quality of food, the sanitation of towns and cities, the safety of transportation systems, and the delivery of utilities and other essential services, to name just a few.

We have compared the 32-bit and 64-bit performance of Ubuntu and started a performance comparison of Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu, but how does the performance of the upcoming Feisty Fawn release compare to that of Fedora 7? In this article we have enclosed benchmarks from Fedora Core 6, Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft, Fedora 7 Test 2, and Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Herd 5. In gaming and desktop benchmarks, which of these Linux distributions is faster? We hope to answer that question today.

An ultra-efficient new RISC-based processor architecture has gained its first Linux distribution support, according to representatives of the open source T2 SDE project. The project's cross-platform Linux build tools now support Atmel's AVR32 architecture, project representatives say.

The idea of switching to Linux has become an increasingly active topic of consideration over the past few years in Japan. Starting in late 2004, a trial study conducted at a handful of schools across the country, comprising a total of roughly a thousand students, experimented with using Linux-based systems in the classroom environment. Three hundred Linux-installed computers were distributed to these schools and subsequently used in a variety of classroom activities such as science experiments, report-writing, and internet-based research. While certain issues arose in the context of these activities related to dependencies on Windows-based software such as Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player, the project on the whole was largely successful and students are reported to have enjoyed and benefited from working in the Linux environment.

A freshly installed copy of Firefox is a great software package, but what makes this open-source browser so special is the ability to customize it via extensions and themes to really make it yours. The problem is, there are so many available add-ins, it's tough to know what's worth installing and what's just going to junk up your system. That's where we come in. We've ferreted out 20 of the best extensions and add-ins used and recommended by hardcore Web surfers, developers and IT pros. Whether you're looking for more streamlined surfing, improved look and feel, cool design tools or serious Web development help, there's something (and more than likely several things) here for you.

A school district technology director is making wholesale changes in her employer's IT system by migrating most of 5,000 Windows desktops to a new setup based primarily on Linux-powered desktop PCs and thin clients. The change aims to reduce annual costs, offer many more applications, and use less energy. Windsor, Calif. School District IT administrator Heather Carver is migrating most of the district's 70 servers and most of its 5,000 desktop machines from a mostly-Windows environment that is quickly becoming obsolete to a new mixed environment that includes PCs running SUSE Linux, Wyse Linux thin-client terminals, and a smattering of Mac and Windows machines.

In an effort to build a simple, lightweight, but useful container for Web applications, the folks at Apache created Apache Geronimo Little-G, a stripped-down version of the original Geronimo application server.

David Carr has written an article about Second Life entitled "Second Life: Is Business Ready For Virtual Worlds?" David is not the first person to write about doing business in Second Life, but he has managed to dig up some interesting information relating to Second Life's true population and technical infrastructure. If this information is accurate, it casts serious doubt on the potential for Second Life to be an effective medium for conducting mainstream, enterprise business activities such as meetings, mass product demonstrations, and large-scale virtual conferences -- at least in the short term.

On Saturday, March 31st 2007, there will be a first Ubuntu conference held in Croatia. Here is the translation of the conference info site,

An Australian consulting company specializing in software reverse engineering is demonstrating its capabilities by analyzing popular open source projects, such as the Linux 2.6.20 kernel. Arian Systems's "SilverBullet" generates detailed program information and graphics offering a "clear view" into undocumented legacy software, according to the company.

Zak Greant belongs to the first generation of adults to mature with free and open source software (FOSS). Starting with his discovery of the PHP programming language a decade ago, Greant has grown along with FOSS until today he is a consultant advising companies and projects on legal issues and corporate strategy. Recently, he founded Foo Associates, a small consulting company where he plans to continue promoting the values of the FOSS communities in business.

Hewlett-Packard is closing custom deals for thousands of desktop PCs running Linux, which has the company assessing the possibility of offering factory-loaded Linux systems, an HP executive said.

Sun Microsystems Inc., at the 2007 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, announced plans to open source Project Darkstar, an online game server platform written entirely in Java technology. The company also announced the opening of registration for the Darkstar Playground, which will enable developers to create a wide variety of games that can be provisioned through a single server platform.